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Protest Fund - End of Season Report

The Charlton Fans Protest Fund was launched on 3 January 2016 with the aim of providing a ready source of funds to enable protest ideas to be turned quickly from concept to reality. At that time, we undertook to provide regular (at least monthly) updates on the fund. In fact, these have been provided more frequently as both the number and amount of donations as well as expenditure grew quickly.

This report, covering the period 3 January to 10 May, aims to give a more comprehensive view - primarily to re-assure the many Charlton fans who have donated that their money is being properly accounted for.

Income

Initially, as funding was only to be made available to members of Charlton Life, donations were sought on the forum. Over time, this was broadened to include the CAS Trust website and social media. Donations have been received from all over the world, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and Singapore.

In addition to donations, some individuals have preferred to pay personally for specific items, such as the two sets of protest badges and the recent advertisement in the Brighton Argus. We are grateful for these additional contributions to the cause.

The total raised in this period is £27,998.59. The source of funds is:

* note: earlier interest payments were added to a donation made to the Upbeats

Expenditure

The fund was initially intended to fund individual protest ideas but the emergence of CARD shortly after it’s launch had a major impact. Both @Davo55 and @Curb_It became members of the CARD organising team and were thus able to contribute to the development of the protest strategy and specific initiatives - always with regard to value for money as well as the likely acceptability of protest initiatives to our donors.

As a result, the bulk of expenditure to date has been on CARD actions, although funding has also been provided to the Belgian 20 group and one individual fan protest idea. In all cases, a funding request has been completed by the protest organiser, and approved by both Davo55 and Curb_It, a dual signatory system to ensure openness and accountability. All payments are made against receipts or supplier invoices.

The total expenditure in the period is £19,467.95. The distribution of spend is:

CARD produced a range of branded clothing - hoodies, sweatshirts and T shirts, which were made available on match days from the stall in Ransom Walk. To meet the needs of more distant Addicks, including those overseas, we also operated a mail order process.

In total, 267 garments were made. Of these:

160 were sold from the match day stall 80 were sold by mail order 27 remain unsold to date

The hoodies and T shirts were very popular and sold the most, in fact T shirts are sold out.

The merchandise operation produced a profit of £1,762.80, not including the additional voluntary donations made by very many of the mail order customers when paying for their goods.

The Future

While the regime remain, the protests will continue and the fund will be there to support the protests.

CARD will be continuing it’s protest campaign over the close season.

Over the next couple of months, we will also be looking into setting up an on-line crowd-funding mechanism (similar to Just Giving donations) to offer a simplified mechanism for payment and to reach a wider audience of potential donors.

What amazes me is not only the amount which has been donated, which far exceeds my expectations, but also the impact that the spend has had on both the costs of the club (where if they have spent any or lost less than £2m on additional security, comms, wastage, lost revenues, I'd surprised) but also the almost universal positive media coverage and fan support the protests have built.

What amazes me is not only the amount which has been donated, which far exceeds my expectations, but also the impact that the spend has had on both the costs of the club (where if they have spent any or lost less than £2m on additional security, comms, wastage, lost revenues, I'd surprised) but also the almost universal positive media coverage and fan support the protests have built.

Thank you guys for tracking and managing all this. As said above, the impact that's been made for a relatively small amount of money is incredibly impressive. Not to go unmentioned, this is in addition to a tremendous amount of time and effort put in by so many involved.

I look forward to the day when we can channel this into helping out club and becoming a permanent member of a Charlton Athletic decision making body (i.e. Board of Directors).

Is there a list of the unsold merch and means to purchase/post? Collectively we must be able to buy the last bit up.

Oli

Great minds and all that..... @Badger did a great job handling all the mail order before. He's going to look into whether we can retrieve (from the stall holder) and offer the remaining stock for a further "end of season" mail order sale.

It might be a bit warm for hoodies and sweats right now but these will be classic, vintage, protest-wear come October!

Is there a list of the unsold merch and means to purchase/post? Collectively we must be able to buy the last bit up.

Oli

Great minds and all that..... @Badger did a great job handling all the mail order before. He's going to look into whether we can retrieve (from the stall holder) and offer the remaining stock for a further "end of season" mail order sale.

It might be a bit warm for hoodies and sweats right now but these will be classic, vintage, protest-wear come October!

PS - would you consider investing in Rolling with Roland. It's not one of those dodgy tax vehicles the British film industry was synonymous for, I just need to pay for Michael Douglas' flights. I'm so close to getting him, but I need to show him I mean business, first class flights from LA etc

Well done guys. I only appreciated the time put in by CARD members upon chatting to Alan on Saturday, prior to the commencement of hostilities.

I am not renewing my season ticket next year, therefore I will not be taking part in the protests for many games, given the distance I live from London. I will however set up a pay-pay type of regular payment once the system is up and running.

Well done guys. I only appreciated the time put in by CARD members upon chatting to Alan on Saturday, prior to the commencement of hostilities.

I am not renewing my season ticket next year, therefore I will not be taking part in the protests for many games, given the distance I live from London. I will however set up a pay-pay type of regular payment once the system is up and running.